Nintendo’s off-beat fighter ARMS is off to a good start in Japan. Sales tracker Media Create is reporting 100,652 units sold in its first three days, the third best debut of a Nintendo Switch game following the boffo debuts of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (285,000) and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (186,000).
When compared to another original Nintendo IP, 2015’s Splatoon, ARMS fell slightly short. Splatoon debuted in May 2015 with 145,000 units, compared to the Wii U install base in Japan at the time (2.35 million). To date, the Switch has sold just under a million units in Japan, a victim of shortages. The game did have a positive effect on Switch sales, bumping the platform to 44,000 units for the week, a 44% from the week before.
In addition, these figures put ARMS as the most successful, unlicensed fighting game in Japan in 7 years. It also outsold the debut figures Street Fighter V and Tekken 7, themselves launching respectively with 46,836 and 58,736 units.
ARMS est le jeu de combat sans licence qui réalise le meilleur démarrage depuis 7 ans au Japon. Plus du double de Street Fighter V. pic.twitter.com/pQtHWf3pUq
— Oscar Lemaire (@oscarlemaire) June 21, 2017
The punchy fighter launched worldwide on June 16th. Figures for North America will come in mid-July, while its release in the UK debuted in second place in all-formats.
